The present invention relates in general to a keyboard apparatus and a method of using it. The invention more particularly relates to keyboard apparatus and method for entering information to reduce or to eliminate repetitive motion injuries to the user.
Many improvements have been made in devices and machines for data and word processing. For example, many years ago, the manual typewriter was replaced with the electric typewriter, and the electric typewriter has been nearly replaced with more sophisticated, computer equipment. Yet, notwithstanding the enormous strides that have been made in improving such equipment, the keyboard, which is the basic interface between the machine and the user has remained relatively unchanged. The inconsistency between the vastly improved computer equipment, as compared to the keyboard itself, has been the result of keyboard designers ignoring the physiological structure of the typical user.
More particularly, users, independently of the information being entered via the keyboard, all enter information by manipulating the keyboard in substantially a similar manner. However, the configuration of the conventional keyboard is somewhat incompatible with the physiological structure of the hands, fingers and arms of the user.
This incompatibility causes the hand, finger and wrist movements of the user operator to be somewhat strained, slowed, and even sometimes misdirected, resulting in not only unwanted and undesired physical stress on the operator, but also in undesired fatigue with resulting entry errors. The results of such repetitive stress and errors can cause unwanted loss in time for correcting the errors, as well as a loss in productivity through stress related injuries suffered by the keyboard operator. Such injuries may be severe enough to render the individual unemployable.
With respect to stress injuries, repetitive stroking of an incompatible keyboard is well known to stress the wrists, elbows and shoulders of an operator. Such repetitive stress when continued over long periods of time, can lead to repetitive stress injuries, such as carnal tunnel syndrome, which is a painful and oftentimes a crippling ailment affecting the tendons and nerves in the person""s wrist area. It should be understood that carnal tunnel syndrome is only one of several musculoskeletal injuries, frequently being identified variously as cumulative trauma disorder, repetitive strain injury, as well as repetitive motion disorder.
Thus, strained repetitive use of one""s hands and fingers can result in swelling causing the tendons to press painfully on the nerves in the person""s wrist area. Moreover, if the swelling continues over a protracted period of time, permanent damage to the nerves may result, thereby causing the afflicted person to lose or at least to reduce greatly, his or her ability to grip objects or even the use of their hands. Thus, such injuries not only can cause lost productivity, but also can cause an increase in worker compensation insurance rates, since such insurance is maintained by employers.
In the case where cumulative trauma disorder is caused by the use of a keyboard, the injury may be caused by the inwardly flexing of the wrists to enable the fingers to be positioned properly to reach the keys of the keyboard. Such flexion of the wrists can cause the unwanted, painful pressing of the tendons on the nerves. Through long periods of time of keyboard entry in such an awkward and stressful position, the dreadful malady can result.
Because of the debilitating effect of carpal tunnel syndrome and other such repetitive stress injuries, resulting from keyboard entry for extended periods of time, there has been a long felt need for a keyboard arrangement which would reduce, if not substantially eliminate, such serious physical impairments. Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved keyboard arrangement for facilitating keyboard entry in a more relaxed, reduced-stress manner. Such an arrangement should substantially reduce, if not completely eliminate, excessive musculoskeletal fatigue and stress. Such an arrangement should eliminate or at least reduce greatly, cumulative trauma disorder, such as carpal tunnel syndrome and the like.
In view of this long felt need, there have been many attempts to improve and correct the deficiencies of well known keyboard arrangements. For example, reference may be made to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,824,268; 4,669,903; 4,509,873; 4,483,634; 4201,409; 4,081,068; 4,661,005; 4,597,681; 3,929,216; 2,218,519; 1,828,939; 1,687,904; and 1,089,689.
One such attempt at helping to reduce carpal tunnel syndrome is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,661,005 which shows a pair of keyboards mounted slidably on a stationary bar and separable into two spaced apart areas. Each keyboard is also mounted pivotally to permit a downward pivoting of the keyboards relative to a longitudinal plane.
From the foregoing it appears that it would be difficult, if not impossible, for an operator to pivot each section of the keyboard arrangement downwardly at precisely the same angle; thus, resulting in the wrists of the operator being flexed at different angles. Additionally, separating the keyboards at a sufficient distance to avoid flexure of a user""s wrists and hands would substantially disrupt the normal hand to eye coordination facilities of the user which is absolutely necessary for rapid and accurate information entry operations via a keyboard terminal. Moreover, the above-mentioned adjustments would need to be made by each user of the keyboard resulting in reduced productivity as each user would take valuable production time to make his or her own personal adjustments to the keyboard arrangement. Finally, it should also be noted that while the separating and pivoting of the keyboard sections may help relieve a user""s discomfort such adjustments may, in fact, be physically improper even though the keyboard placement may feel good to the user. Thus, the separate keyboards are less than satisfactory in substantially reducing cumulative trauma disorder.
Another attempt directed at reducing cumulative trauma disorder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,681 which discloses an adjustable keyboard arrangement divided laterally into two sections. Each individual section is adjustable about each of two mutually angulated axes so as to change the planes of the sections relative to a support base, and to allow each section to be angularly shifted in its own plane. The keys in each section are also mounted for individual adjustment angularly, laterally and in height.
Thus, in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,681, the keyboard construction disclosed therein may lend itself to permitting individual adjustment for more comfortable use, by accommodating the arms, hands and fingers of an operator. However, the patented keyboard arrangement is very expensive to manufacture and awkward to use. In this regard, the axes of angular shift, make it difficult for an operator to visualize clearly each individual character key. Thus, while this keyboard arrangement may tend to help reduce physical stress, it would be a difficult and time consuming process to learn to use this type of keyboard arrangement. In this regard, before a skilled operator can attempt to input information at the same speed as a conventional keyboard, the unique and very different shape and configuration of the patented adjustable keyboard require new skills to be learned. In short, while the adjustable patented keyboard may be designed to overcome some physically disabling problems, a skilled use would require an undesirably long period of training, and may never be able to regain former speed and accuracy. Moreover, as this keyboard arrangement requires individual adjustments, all of the problems noted with respect to the other patents mentioned above would also apply to this keyboard arrangement.
Still yet another attempted solution is a shorthand typewriting machine keyboard disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,318,519 where the keys are divided into two groupings or sections disposed at an angle relative to one another to help orient the hands of an operator in proper alignment with the keys. While this arrangement is ideal for the proper orientation of the hands of a shorthand machine operator, the keyboard construction would not prove satisfactory for use in a modern keyboard, such as the ones used with computers, because the unconventional orientation of the individual keys make it difficult for a skilled keyboard entry person to use efficiently such a keyboard without additional expensive and time consuming training. In this regard, such a shorthand keyboard is, of course, totally different from a computer keyboard.
While each of the above mentioned keyboard arrangements may claim to reduce cumulative trauma disorder, each one would not be satisfactory for use by a highly skilled keyboard entry person. In this regard, many skilled persons earn their living by fast and accurate keyboard entry. Thus, if a keyboard does help in the prevention of repetitive injuries, such a keyboard would not at all be useful to a person who could not use it at a sufficiently high rate of speed to meet employment requirements. Also, long, arduous training is not at all desirable, and can totally preclude its use, even though the prior known keyboards may be useful in preventing injuries. In short; even though a keyboard may prevent injuries, it may not be useful at all, if it can not be operated quickly and easily, with little or no training. With such a keyboard entry method, the entry speed of the operator can be greatly improved over a xe2x80x9chunt and peck xe2x80x9d typing technique. However, mastering the touch typing technique, requires many hours of extensive training. While such training is relatively tedious and time consuming, trainees are willing to expend their time and efforts, because at higher entry or typing speeds, the greater the amount of income that can be earned by the operator at a place of employment.
Mastering the touch typing technique is time consuming, because the operator must first memorize the location of each of the keys and their associated control keys. Then, following this memorization, the operator must master complex key stroking patterns by repetitive practice.
In order to master touch typing, after the key locations are memorized, specific finger placements must be mastered. In this regard, the fingers of the right and left hands are placed on specific keys of a middle row of characters keys. The fingers of the left hand are positioned on the character keys A, S, D, and F, while the fingers of the right hand are placed on the character keys J, K, L and ;. The fingers of the right and left hands move from these xe2x80x9chome or resting positions xe2x80x9d to strike the other keys. In this regard, the fingers on the left hand operate the following keys:
The fingers on the right hand operate the following keys:
The trainee must therefore learn, not only the location of each key, but also must learn the stroking technique for which each key is to be actuated on a finger by finger basis. In order to understand which finger is assigned which key, the finger to key relationship for the left hand is as follows:
The finger to key relationship for the right hand is as follows:
Based on the foregoing, it is apparent that the individual fingers of a user start on different home keys and then travel quickly and instinctively to a plurality of different positions. For example, the index finger of each hand must travel from a rest position to seven different keys. Training the fingers to move from the home keys to the target keys, and then back again, requires practice repeatedly, until the fingers move instinctively from key to key in an extremely rapid and accurate manner.
Thus, the touch typing technique requires trainees to learn the complex stroking patterns associated with moving their fingers across the keyboard in a rapid accurate manner, until an acceptable level of entry speed can be achieved with few or no errors in an instinctive manner Unfortunately, because of musculoskeletal physical stress on the fingers, hands, waists, arms, neck, shoulders and back of the person executing the strokes, entry speed is generally limited to no more than three to five strokes a second, even after lengthy training.
Like riding a bicycle, once a person learns the complex keystroke patterns of touch typing, the patterns remain fixed in the reflex memory of the typist. Such a trained person can easily repeat the rapid fire finger movements in an instinctive manner, even after extended periods of not using the technique. In this regard, it should be recognized that since the fingers of a user are trained to move in unique patterns, the slightest deviation from that pattern of key strokes, will seriously degrade the training of the keyboard operator so that he or she may never be able to attain the same high rate of entry speed using conventional touch typing key strokes.
Therefore, it is absolutely clear that anyone who has mastered the art of touch typing, would have an extremely difficult, if not impossible time, in attempting to do keyboard entry on any one of the prior known stress-relieving keyboards, such as the aforementioned patented keyboards. In this regard, when positioning the fingers on the unfamiliar, distinctive prior known keyboards, the fingers would be unable to perform instinctively as previously trained, due to the different spatial arrangement of keys. Thus, the familiar ingrained training must be unlearned, and a whole new key stroke pattern would be required. Such an arduous and time consuming training process is unwanted and undesirable. Also, it may be completely impossible for a person to achieve his or her previous finger speed and accuracy.
Thus, if a person is unable to do keyboard entry at a sufficiently high rate of speed with acceptable accuracy, then the livelihood of such a person may be at risk. The employer normally demands a certain level of proficiency, before a keyboard entry person will be hired. Also, from the perspective of an employer, a keyboard will not be used if it slows down the operator to a point where productivity is not satisfactory. Thus, even if a keyboard may somehow reduce physical stress on the operator, it will not at all be useful or acceptable if the speed and accuracy of the operator is severely impaired.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved keyboard arrangement that permits a user/operator to enter information rapidly and conveniently in an extremely fast and accurate manner. In this regard, the user/operator should be able to enter information as rapidly as when using a conventional keyboard arrangement, and should not be required to undergo extensive and time consuming training in order to use the keyboard arrangement in a rapid data entry manner.
An early design of a mechanical typewriter keyboard is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,138,474. In this patent, there is recognition of the stressful position that must be assumed by the forearms, wrists and hands of a keyboard operator. The patent therefore disclosed a keyboard that has separated groups of keys in an attempt to preclude the hands of the user being twisted. While a keyboard having this type arrangement would result in less strain upon the abducent muscles, it is also apparent that such a keyboard arrangement could not be used by a modern day word processing or data entry person in a rapid and efficient manner. In short, one could certainly not use familiar touch typing techniques on such a typewriter. In this regard, a data entry person has years of training so that finger to keypad movements are accomplished instinctively and accurately. Thus, if the fingers of the user are positioned in the usual four finger groupings as is well known in the touch typing technique, it is apparent numerous errors would occur. More particularly, as the fingers move from their rest position to designated target keys, the target key would be misplaced and thus, the key would either be completely missed, struck simultaneously with another key, or hit other than at its center pad location. Thus, in order for a skilled person to use such an arrangement, they would necessarily need to learn a substantially different typing technique with numerous modifications to the conventional finger to key stroking maneuvers executed according to conventional touch type techniques.
Therefore the principal object of the present invention is to provide a new and improved keyboard arrangement and method of using it, to not only relieve unwanted physical stress, but also to enable a skilled user to do keyboard entry at a high rate of speed with an acceptable degree of accuracy.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved keyboard arrangement and method of using it, so as to enable a touch typist to learn to use such a keyboard arrangement and method, with little or no training. Still another object of the present invention is to provide such a new and improved keyboard arrangement that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
Briefly the above and other objects and features of the present invention are provided in a new and improved keyboard apparatus having two spaced apart clusters or groups of character keys. Each cluster or group is configured in an elongated rectangularly shaped arrangement. The clusters or groups are angularly displaced between their transverse dimensions by an angle xcex8 of about 31xc2x0 to about 36xc2x0. Each group of character keys is arranged in a series of spaced apart staggered rows of discrete character keys and includes a common V-shaped space bar key bridging the two clusters. In order to facilitate easy recognition of the function of each of the character keys, character indica is disposed on the top surface of selected ones of the keys and is angularly displaced thereon by an angle of about xcex8/2.